Railway-brake



'H. S. VOTAW. RAILWAY BRA KE. APPLlCATION FILED JAN. 21, 1921.

Patented'Sept. 20, 1921.

Home)" J. Vofa w V citizen of the United States, residing at To all whom it may concern:

UNITED STATES HOMER S. VOTAW, OF ('1I-IC HAKA, \VASHINGTON.

RAI AY-BRAKE.

Application filed January, 27; 192 1. Serial-No. 4 10,3513.

Be it known that I, HOMER S. VorAw, a

Chopaka, in the county of Okanogan and State. of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway- Brakes, of which'the following is a specification. 7

My present invention relates to improvements in railway brakes involving mechaa nism carried by the'railway car5 preferably on the truck, which is trippedor actuated by contact with the traction rails when the car wheels or truck are derailed or leave the track. Through suitable connections "with the automatic air brake system of the train, including a valve in the air line or train pipe of the air equipment which is operated by this emergency mechanism, the braking sys-' tem of the train is operated and the brakes applied in usual manner tothe wheels-of the cars composing the train, to stop the train and prevent further damage or destruction. To this end the invention consists in cer-' tain novel combinations and arrangements of parts of actuating mechanism carried by the car trucks and actuated by contact with the rails as will be hereinafter .more fully explained; and in conjunction with the actu' ating mechanism I employ a gu'ard to prevent undesired actuation of the mechanism by obstructions other thanthe rails- In the accompanying drawin s I have illustrated one complete example of the physical embodiment of my invention 1n which the parts are combined and arranged according to the best mode I have thus far devised for the practical application of the principles of my invention.

Figure 1 is a view in side elevatlon at one end of a railway car showing the device of my invention applied thereto, the parts being in normal position.

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical sectlonal view at line 2-2 of Fig. 1. n

Fig. 3 is a detail view partly in section of the supporting and suspending devices for the contact bar of the emergency mechanism. f

In order that'the relation of the invention may be readily understood I have illustrated a portion of a railway freight car indicated as 1 which is provided with the usual or standard brake equipment under 7 Specification of Letters Patent.

the bottom of the car,- including the train P pe 3, and in the pipea supplemental control valve 4 is interposed, and which is operated to bring about the required condition for the application of the brakes to the several wheels by discharging the air pres sure in the train pipe in the usual manner.v The truck bolster 5 isutilized for the sup port of the emergency mechanism; and the car wheels 6 and rails 7 "are indicated for convenience of illustration.

Patented Sept. 20, 1921.

In carrying out my invention in its physia cal embodiment I'utilize a transversely located contact bar 8, preferably of metal and dlsposedbetween the front and rear pairs of wheels of the four wheel truck; extend- 7 ing longitudinally of the truck bolster 5 and directly beneath the bolster. The body of the contact bar is elevated above the track rails, but near its ends the contact bar is fashioned with depending portions or. de-

pressions? 9 situated directly over the rails and spaced apart the distance of the track gage, in order that they may contact'with the rails should theftruck or wheels leave the track and thus permit the bolster 5 to fall ordrop. 'While the portions 9. are de-" signed to contact with the rails,"the body of the contact'bar is sufficiently elevated as to prevent contact'withportions of the rail or obstructions on the 'roadbed.

At its respective ends the contact bar is provided with vertically disposed angular supporting rods 10, 10 extending above the bar'and'outside the wheels,'and the bifurcated ends 10 of these rods fit over the ends of the bar and are firmly riveted or bolted thereto. The supporting rods are suspended and guided in a pair of sleeves 11, one for each rod, which are flanged at 12 and bolted to the top face of. the bolster, with the supporting rods passing through the sleeves and through openings in the bolster pro vided therefor. Above the sleeve each rod has a suspending collar 13 which may be moved to adjusted position thereon and fixed by the set screw or bolt 14 in the collar bearingagainst the rod, and by means of the collars the rods and bar are supported or suspended with the collars resting on top of the sleeves as shown. Thus the rods and contact bar may be elevated, but cannot be depressed or lowered because of the contact between the collars and sleeves.

The upper ends of the rods are forked at 15 for connection with a rock shaft 16, which at its ends is fashioned with rock arms 17 pivotally connected, as by the slotted connection 18 to the rods, and it will be apparent that as the rods are elevated they will cause the arms to turn and rock the shaft. The

rock shaft is journaled below the car bot-:

tom, transversely of the car, and is pro I vided with an intermediate crank arm 19 projecting upwardly and vertically therefrom, and by means of the horizontally disposed link 20 pivoted to the crank armat 21, a flexible connectionvis afforded between the valve lever 22 and the rock shaft. Now it will readily be evident that as the portions 9 of the contact bar strike the rail, as when the car is derailed or the wheels leave the track, through the above described connections the rock shaft will turn the valve lever,

to operate the valve, and .by suitable connections therefrom and'operations of the air brake system, the brakesv are applied to the respective'car wheels to stop further progress of the trainer cars.

nism I employ a breakable or frangible guard device for the contact bar embodying two uard bars 23, 23 disposed parallel with and ocated at thefront and rear of the contact bar, and of course extended transversely of the car. These guard bars are similar in form to the contact bar. and are fashioned withdepressions'24, and as seen in Fig. 2 the lower edges of the guard bars project below the contact or lower'edge'of the contact bar in order that the guard bars may form a shield to, prevent the contact barcoming in contact with any obstruction other than the rails. The guard bars are. suspended by 'han ers or arms 23 '23 'at the side of the true and in Fig.- 1 it will be observed that these hangers or side arms extend downwardly and'diverge outwardly,'but are retained, by bolts 26 which extend longitudinally of the car and normally hold the In connection with the emergency mecha- "position, the portions 24; of the guard bars will contact with thevrails 7 and the weight of the truck will be sufficient to tear the bolted connection loose and spreadthedi- 1 verging side arms of'the guard, and as the truck or wheels continue to fall, the contact bar strikes the rails to operate or actuate 'the'emergenoy mechanism for the purpose described. 7 r V From the above descriptiontaken in con-v nection with my drawings it will be obvious that I have provided a compactlyfarranged, simply constructed and reliable emergency functions with oelerity and facility, andthe broken parts may be repaired at compara- I tively low cost.

Having thus fully, described my invention,

'mechanism for performing its required What I claim as new and desire to secure by" LettersPatent is 1. The combination witha railway car truck bolster and the air brake equipment including a control valve, ,of-a contact bar adapted to be elev'ated,,and means actuated by the elevation of said barto control said ,I

valve,ifront-and rear, guard bars for: said contact bar, and breakable connections be-. tween-said guard bars, for thepurpose described.

2; In acdevice asdescribed', the combination with a liftable contact bar and rigidbolster, of a pair of guard barshaving diverging, end, hangers attached to :said bjolster, and a breakable connection between'said pairs of hangers for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

HOMER svoTAw. 1 

